Abbreviations # 49 | Free to Fall, I Have Lost My Way + Trust in Me

Free to Fall is a science fiction mystery set at a boarding school - and it really, really worked for me! In the novel, the world is crazy about an app called Lux, which helps users by making all their decisions for them in ways guaranteed to give them the best outcome. The story particularly centers around main character Aurora 'Rory' Vaughn, who follows Lux's suggestions and ends up being accepted to the prestigious boarding school called Theden. At school, she finds herself challenged at every turn with the high quality of education, the presence of a townie named North who doesn't use Lux and the inner voice in her mind that she's started to listen to despite being told it's something to ignore... I'll leave the summary at that, but suffice to say that this was really fun. The pacing was really well-done (except for the couple of intro chapters), the setting was fantastic and the mystery was set up well too. It was so satisfying to navigate all the twists and turns in Miller's narrative and to reach that conclusion. The only reason that I couldn't rate this one any higher was because of a personal hang-up: I couldn't really connect on a personal level with any of the characters. Still, this was an entertaining and quick read, and I did end up enjoying it overall!

Free to Fall by Lauren Miller | Publisher: Harper Teen | Publication Date: May 13, 2014 | Source:  e-book borrowed from the library

It's been some time since I last read a Gayle Forman novel, so to tell you all that I was highly anticipating reading I Have Lost My Way is not enough to convey the level of my expectations going into this one. It reminds me plenty of Forman's previous work, as it tackles characters who are dealing with some complicated personal situations and are forced to take the next step (or steps) towards figuring out what to do in response or as a result. The entire novel is told through the points of view (and flashbacks) of three characters: Freya (a singer whose career was poised to take off until she lost her voice), Harun (a boy planning to run away from his family's future plans for him) and Nathaniel (a newcomer to New York who is desperately trying to find an escape). It's woven together in a way that seems a bit rough at the start, but it melds into something that was impossible for me to look away from by the end. I love the way that Forman portrays these different characters going through loss and loneliness (in a variety of ways), and I also really like the way that you slowly get to find out what's going on in each of their lives. But what I enjoyed most of all is the way that this story portrays the way that life can sometimes work in coincidences, or having things happen at the right place and time to change the course of your life forever. While there were certainly moments where I had to suspend my own disbelief, it is, all in all, a really solid story for Forman, and I'm looking forward to whatever she does next.

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman | Publisher: Viking Books for Young Readers | Publication Date: March 27, 2018 | Source: Hardcover received from the publisher (Thanks!)

It's been a couple of years since I read Wait for You, but I think having such a long gap between reading it and Trust in Me worked out really well. Trust in Me, after all, is a novella that explores Cam's perspective of the events in Wait for You, so if I'd read it back-to-back, I'm not sure if I would have enjoyed it as much. I liked it a lot though, mostly because I'd forgotten just how much I liked Cam and Avery as individual characters and the relationship they develop over the course of the story. Their banter made me laugh, their friendship warmed my heart and the inevitable romance caused quite a few moments of swooning. All in all, despite the fact that I don't think I'd have enjoyed reading this as a stand-alone, I loved it for the way it reminded me of my feels about the original and because it offered more insight into Cam's character (and I really like him!). All in all, it was nice to slip back into another JLA story... and now I want to officially keep going with this series.

Trust in Me by Jennifer L. Armentrout | Series: Wait for You #1.5 | Previous Book in the Series: Wait for You | Publisher: William Morrow Impulse | Publication Date: October 22, 2013 | Source: Owned the Kindle book